I found a good solution. These guys came in and handled those little creepy crawlers. I was real happy with the service and they were totally green and non-toxic. www.decongreeninc.com

This just scares me to no end. If you do happen to get bedbugs you can get rid of them by using diatomaceous earth. I get mine from http://www.gardenharvestsupply.com/ProductCart/pc/Diatomaceous-Earth-Food-Grade-p39.htm

Bed bugs have been with us since our beginning. They're part of our natural and normal existence. Since we're moving aways from pesticides toward more natural ways of doing things we are also moving back to our natural state. Let's just relax and not worry about bed bugs. After all, its so much better for the environment and bed bugs have a right to live and feed too. don't they? :-)

"bed bugs have a right to live and feed too. don't they?"

No, they do not. There are some species on this planet that scientists have pretty much deemed as extraneous, meaning that if they died off, our environment would not be disastrously impacted. Mosquitoes are another animal in this category.

All it takes is one fertile female containing eggs to start a huge infestation. Considering how many people use the trains I'm surprised the problems are't much worse by far. Count your blessings and stay vigilant.

I think the bedbugs usually prefer to have some kind of fabric in which to live in. So on the train with all the hard surfaces, I'd guess they'd be less likely to live in there than to hitch a ride on different people's clothing.

"I think the bedbugs usually prefer to have some kind of fabric in which to live in."

A common misconception, but in fact they most commonly nest in wood. Baseboards, headboards, picture or mirror frames, etc. are more commonly the center of an infestation than mattresses. If they are actually nesting in beds at all, it's most likely in the wood frames and supports inside the box spring, not the fabric portions of the mattress.

Generally they come to the bed and mattress to feed, and may lay eggs there in protected areas like the tufts around the edges. But the actual infestation is likely to be centered in tight cracks of wood structures.

Whatever happened to good old cockroaches? Now it's all about bedbugs. Seriously, they're back because of P.C. environmental controls that outlawed the use of effective pesticides. And, large numbers of travelers and 3rd world 'immigrants' from locales infested with these things. Simple as that.

So you're blaming the "PC environmentalists"? Well, those pesticides were killing off the birds and giving children cancer and making the rivers a toxic soup. So hurray for the PC environmentalists, I say.

"Where there's one, there's two; when there's two, there's more. There's always a whole group of them."

Of course, that's not true. If a bug was on someone's clothing and was displaced at the station, there'd be only one. These aren't single-celled organisms that reproduce simply by splitting into two; unless that single bed bug happened to be a female that was already carrying eggs, there could be no resulting infestation beyond that.

I think he just meant that if you see one, there's probably another around the corner.

"on the F line in Park Slope 10 days ago, though the Post doesn't specify whether it's the Fourth Avenue or Seventh Avenue station."

The Post says it was the "Ninth Street station on the D line", not the F... so it would be 4th Avenue.

Do they? Because I read, "The MTA had to fumigate parts of the Ninth Street station on the F line in Brooklyn after the creepy-crawlies were recently spotted in a subway booth, NYC Transit officials said."

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/crawl_aboard_bedbugs_writhe_the_iG7TTygCqXIZ5jJCK5XTIK?CMP=OTC-rss&FEEDNAME=

Were these fare-paying bugs or did they jump the turnstiles? More to the point, doesn't this highlight a problem with the subway management in educating their workers as to what constitutes an actual emergency? What were the repercussions for their hysterical over reaction? Were the bugs even bed bugs? It is amazing how often folks see cockroaches or beetles and think 'bed bugs'.

Just wait until they start showing up in the cloth seat cushions on airliners, Amtrak/LIRR/Metro North trains, Greyhound/Trailways/Megabus, etc. There'll be mass hysteria throughout the populace. Come to think of it, who needs bombs? Terrorists could bring our travel economy to a standstill by spreading bedbugs on vehicles.

i have to admit, bedbugs have an excellent taste in location. can we also civilize them?